How much video memory is really needed?

[DJ Bobo]

Hi,
I have this laptop with shared memory graphics. I can choose between 16 and 64MB. As I wanna give as much memory to Windows as possible (and obviously don't play 3D games), I wanted to try the 16MB setting.
To my astonishment, everything seems to work just fine, I can't seem to find a noticeable difference between the 16 and 64MB settings, DivX @ 640x480 plays juste fine even though the DivX site says that it needs at least 32MB VRAM, and AVC @ 720x480 also plays just fine even though the CoreAVC site says that it needs 64MB VRAM for 480p.

So what the heck?! Am I missing something?

And does the memory setting has an effect on other things than Video and 3D-Games that I could be missing?

[check]

All the video card is used for in your setup is as a frame buffer. You only need a few megabytes per frame buffered.

[Blue_MiSfit]

+1

You don't need VRAM for very much, unless you're running Vista, or plan on using the Haali renderer in Media Player Classic.

Now, if you're encoding video on the other hand - lots of VRAM is helpful if you're using GPU accelerated filters, like fft3dgpu. For example, one 1080p encode with fft3dgpu operating on the luma and chroma will saturate a 512MB framebuffer pretty nicely!

~MiSfit

[dat720]

VRAM recomendations are just that, a recomendation it is not saying it must have 32mb to run properly, it depends entirely on the chipset of the card, and the performance it is capable of, for instance i have a 512mb nvidia 8500GT here which is slower than the 256mb ATI HD2600PRO i am currently using, a 16mb graphics would not have any problems in instances where a 32mb card was recomended as long as it's chipset is fast enough! Increasing VRAM does not usually increase performance, the performance increase comes from a faster GPU

[salehin]

..if you're encoding video on the other hand - lots of VRAM is helpful if you're using GPU accelerated filters, like fft3dgpu. For example, one 1080p encode with fft3dgpu operating on the luma and chroma will saturate a 512MB framebuffer pretty nicely!

Doe is it mean that you need a decent gpu (say, GeForce 8400M GS) and VRAM (is it virtual memory, which can be increased from windows settings) or RAM?

[check]

Only if you use the filter fft3dgpu. You don't normally need *any* video card for video encoding. You only need one in the special case when you are using a filter that processes video on the GPU.

VRAM = Video RAM = RAM on the video card. Virtual Memory is hard drive space pretending to be system RAM.

[dat720]

A GPU really only does one thing, processes commands that were specificly written for it... ie directx calls, for the most part a GPU does squat for video encoding, good for playback tho.... unless as Blue_MiSfit and check have already stated you use software which uses the GPU for encoding purposes, and even then not all GPU's can be used for encoding.

And for the record a 8400M GS is not really a decent GPU, laptops do not come with good GPU's unless you spend big bucks! Same with processor's laptops generally have low power cut down CPU's which is good for battery life, bad for encoding video's, 8400M GS is a slower low power version of the 8400GS, i have a 512mb 8500GT which i feel is a average GPU, certainly not a powerhouse.

[salehin]

Thanks guys... that VRAM made me confused

I won't be playing any game ... Don't like CG- except NFS, which I played in the summer of 2003.